Special Angler Foundation Youth Club of Lancaster County, Virginia  

Dear Joe and Kathy, 

I want to thank both of you for adding the Special Angler Division to this year’s Spanish Mackerel Tournament.  My family does quite a bit of fishing, but we have never entered in a fishing tournament.  Morgan Howard, my oldest daughter, has Down’s Syndrome.  So, we decided to enter our first fishing tournament when  we heard about your tournament having a Special Angler Division.    

We had a pretty good team of anglers on our boat and a decent chance to win a prize in the tournament.  Along with Morgan, we also had her two younger sisters, Caroline(16) and Catherine(13) and our friends, Joe, Abby(16), and Issy English(13).  Morgan caught our first three fish to give her the first chance at an award, but unfortunately for Morgan, I had chosen to fish at Point Lookout in the morning and all we were catching were bluefish.  Later when we moved into the Bay and we were catching Spanish Mackerel, Morgan was happy watching and didn’t end up catching a Spanish Mackerel for the tournament.  Caroline, Catherine, Abby, Issy, and Joe’s Spanish Mackerel didn’t win any of the prizes, but we sure did enjoy eating them for dinner that evening.  If you are following along you notice I didn’t catch any fish during the tournament.  But, I want you to know that my day was priceless.  I spent the day with my three daughters and our good friends the English’s fishing on the Chesapeake Bay in your Spanish Mackerel tournament and the memories I have of this day will last a lifetime.   If any of the other boats saw a boat with teenage girls dancing to Alabama’s Dixieland Delight, it was ours and while it might not have helped us catch a prize winning Spanish Mackerel, we had fun just the same. 

I am sure there is no doubt that the special anglers and their families benefited by your adding this division, so I really hope the Little League and the entire fishing tournament had a great experience as well.  I also want to point out the additional revenue just my boat and 7 participants contributed to the local economy because you added the Special Angler Division.  We bought our tackle at Smith Point Marina and RW’s Sports in Callao and gas out of Sandy Point Marina.   Adding up the registration, fuel, food, beverages, and tackle we contributed about $1,000 to the local economy thanks to your fishing tournament.   

We are already talking about entering a Potomac River Rockfish tournament out of Colonial Beach or maybe a local pond or lake fishing tournament and I hope these tournaments will consider adding the Special Angler Division.   We would love to participate again next year and hope you will be adding the Special Angler Division in next year’s Spanish Mackerel Tournament.

Regards,
Rob Howard

"Tasha was so excited to bring home "the fish" that she caught and show Mom. We ate the fillets this week for dinner and they were just as delicious as you said they would be--the blue fish were good too!  Tasha has been telling all who will listen that she "caught a big fish" as she moves her hands further and further apart to demonstrate the size of her catch  (the fish is now three feet long!)."

Chuck Adkins, father of Tasha

Diana and I (Joe)  have two boys, Sander (18) and Travis (16).  Travis was diagnosed early on with a form of Autism (aka being on the Autism Spectrum).  When Travis was born in 1996, the incidence of Autism then was one in 272.  As of 2013, the incidence of Autism (or a child on the Autism Spectrum) is now one in fifty.  Travis was hampered early in life with what appeared to be a stroke to his right side and struggles with his speech and other fine motor skills.  Unlike some children with Autism who close up to the world around them, Travis has remained quite social.  We had to learn which activities worked well for him and those that did not.  Travis has always had a fascination for gadgets, and I quickly learned how he could be occupied in the boat for a day out on the water fishing.  Travis loved the GPS/Sonar device and especially the VHF/UHF radio.  He turned out to have great boat legs and not once has he ever gotten sea sick.  Mostly, with Travis out on the water with me, it gave Diana a much needed break on land.

Although Travis never took on to fishing right away, we learned he did great driving the boat which gave the rest of us a chance to work the lines while trolling, thus he has always been a part of our crew during the Spanish Mackerel Tournament and rockfish outings with friends.  I discovered that Travis really took to fishing when he and I went out one day in September 2011 fishing for flounder.  Travis decided to practice his casting of a little jig in preparation for a school fishing field trip.  He started landing speckled trout all on his own.  I quickly converted to his technique and also started catching.

Prior to the 2012 tournament, my son Sander and I began discussing the idea of a Special Angler category for fishermen like Travis.  We had learned over the years how easily we could motivate Travis to participate in things with a little bit of money as a reward.  As soon as Travis learned that he could use money in exchange for his own computer accessories (and or computers), he would do just about anything to earn some.  We have often used money rewards for him to take on new Special Olympic Track and Field events that he would otherwise shy away from (for which he eventually excelled, e.g. 400 Meters, long jump, etc.).  With these thoughts in mind, we had hoped to secure the category for 2012, but we approached the officials too late into the planning stages.

During the 2012 Spanish Mackerel Tournament, Travis (15 years old at the time) remained our last family hope for the coveted Youth Angler award.  I saw how the potential bounty of the Youth Award not only motivated me, but my entire 2012 tournament team in encouraging Travis (nearly demanding him) to take a role in manning the rods.  He had rarely done that in previous tournaments.  We had come close in previous years and often saw our standings bumped down on the leader board from 1st place to totally out of contention.  Travis won 1st place in the Youth Angler category in 2012 tournament and earned a $200 cash prize which he used to purchase an iPad with Diana (he still threatens to buy her out of the 50% share).  The award plaque that he also received is maintained on our fireplace mantel (a memorial of great pride).  The dramatic  story of our  catch was  documented by Lisa Hinto-Valdrighi, a reporter for the Rappahannock Record.

Travis’ success convinced us that a Special Angler category would work and would motivate families to stay active on the water in an event like the Spanish Mackerel Tournament.  Throughout this past year, Sander has continued to coordinate the effort to establish the award with Kathy Pittman, the director of the YCLC tournament.  

As a family, we will be your ambassadors for this first ever general public fishing tournament with a designated cash purse for special needs.  If it produces what we hope the tournament did for Travis, our goal is to see this spread to other fishing tournaments throughout the country.  We plan to use the Special Angler Foundation as as means to that end. 

We'll maintain a little blog category here for dialog about our inaugural event, the YCLC Spanish Mackerel Tournament held along the Chesapeake Bay waters along Virginia's Northern Neck.  Feel free to post your questions and comments here.